My Little Duckling
by ShipperQueen93
Summary: Part of the Morning With the Golds verse. Rumple and Belle take Elizabeth to a duck pond.


This was prompted on tumblr for my 200 follower promptathon. The Prompt was Rumple and Belle take Elizabeth to feed the ducks and she wants to keep all of them. I tweaked it just a tad, but I'm very happy with how this turned out. This is quickly becoming a favorite verse of mine and more is definitely to come. As always, for updates or ficbits you can check out my tumblr. My name there is the same here, Shipperqueen93.

**Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT or it's characters.**

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"Mommy! Daddy! Look at the duckies!" Rumple and Belle watched as their daughter raced towards the edge of the little pond in park. The pond that currently hosted a family of fluffy yellow ducks who were happily splashing about. Elizabeth giggled as the ducks slipped into the water, only their bottoms sticking up in the air, as they searched for food. "Mommy what are they doing?"

Belle smiled and pulled the four year old from the brink of the pond. The last thing she need was for her to fall in...again. "They're eating. Their food is in the water so they've got to go down to get it." Elizabeth's nose scrunched up as she considered that fact and Belle could practically see the gears whirling in her head. "That doesn't sound very yummy Mommy. I bet they would like cookies! Everyone likes cookies! But we don't have any cookies. We should get a cookie and then bring it to the duckies. But they would be sad if they had cookies and I didn't. So we should get two cookies so that way they can have a cookie and I can have a cookie! Right Mommy?!"

Rumple laughed as Elizabeth was practically bouncing with excitement, her eyes trained on her mother. Belle was biting back a laugh herself as she looked down at the little girl clinging to her dress, but managed to shake her head. "Duckies don't like cookies Sweetie. Chocolate makes them sick, it's bad for their tummies." The pout from before reappeared as considered her mother's words. Her eyes shot back to the ducks for a few seconds before turning to her Papa. "Daddy, can you make the cookie's safe for the ducky's tummies?"

Rumple could see Belle shaking her head, a bemused look on her face. Elizabeth didn't often ask for Daddy to use magic, both parents had instilled in her that all magic came with a price so most of the time it wasn't worth it, but whenever she did request it Rumple caved to his little girl's demands. With a small flourish of his hand he produced a plain brown paper bag which he promptly handed to Elizabeth. The bag was opened in .2 seconds, Elizabeth's little hand plunging into to the bag to get to the expected magic cookies. Instead she got a hand full of halved green grapes. Her eyes flitted from the grapes in her hand, to the grapes in the bag and then up to him. "What about the cookies?"

Rumple knelt down so he was eye level with his daughter, "Well Sweetie duckies don't like cookies, and magic cookies might hurt them even more than the chocolate. But all duckies love grapes, and its good for their little bellies." Elizabeth regarded the grapes in her hand once more before accepting her father's words. Daddy never lied to her before so if he said duckies liked grapes then duckies must like grapes.

She moved back to the edge of the pond and tossed a few of the grapes into the water where they floated at the surface. At first the ducks scattered at the small projectiles but eventually, one by one, they paddled over to where the grapes rested on top of water and snatched them up. Elizabeth was delighted when after she accidentally spilled a few grapes on the shore one of the ducklings waddled up onto the sand and pecked it up from near her feet. Carefully she bent down, holding out her small hand filled with grapes to the fluffy yellow bird. The duckling regarded her for a moment, not moving, before pecking first one grape, then another from her hand. Soon another duckling joined it's sibling and started eating from her hand. And then another. And then a third. Pretty soon Elizabeth had the entire family of ducks literally eating out of the palm of her hand.

Soon she was out of grapes and eventually the ducks wandered off in favor of finding more food. Belle and Rumple smiled as their own little duckling waved them off before running over to them. "Mommy! Daddy! Did you see that! They came right up to me. They liked me!" Belle chuckled and ruffled her chestnut curls, "Of course they did Sweetheart." Elizabeth got that look on her face that Belle quickly recognized as her 'Daddy's little girl' face. It was the look that got her ice cream for breakfast, a slide in their living room, and two ponies. It was the look that meant she used when she wanted Daddy wrapped around her little finger. "Daddy can I have a ducky?"

Belle shook her head when Rumple glanced up at her. If he had it his way he'd go out and buy his little girl a whole nest of ducks but Belle hadn't been so happy last month when she came home to a pony in the back yard, and had made him promise to try to limit the spoiling (or at least the pets). He had promised her that he'd be more in control, but in the face of Elizabeth's puppy dog eyes and puckered bottom lip he felt his resolve cracking. "Well how about we start with going to Granny's and getting you a cookie, and we'll see if we can talk Mommy into letting you have one."

Belle rolled her eyes as Elizabeth squealed with joy, already talking about what she wanted to name her duck. Rumple sent her an apologetic smile and Belle shook her head indulgently. Elizabeth asked for a duck, and she'd get one.

After all, she was sure that Dark Star Pharmacy sold rubber ducks.

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Please tell me what you think! :)


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